Shiva and Sumit's heart-warming performance came on a day three Indian boxers -- Vijender Singh (75kg), Manpreet Singh (91kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) -- bowed out of the tournament. (PTI Photo)

NEW DELHI: "I love you papa," an emotional Shiva Thapa told his father when he called home soon after becoming the youngest Indian boxer to book an Olympics berth. The eighteen-year-old achieved this feat when he beat Japan's Satoshi Shimizu 31-17 in the semifinals of 56kg category of the Asian Qualifying Event in Astana (Kazakhstan) on Wednesday.

Another teenager, Sumit Sangwan, landed a power-packed punch later in the evening to extend celebrations in the Indian camp. The 19-year-old outclassed Jordan's Ihab Almatdault 24-12 in the 81 kg category to become the seventh Indian to qualify for the London Games. India will now field its biggest ever boxing contingent in the Olympic Games -- five boxers had represented the country at the Beijing Games in 2008.

Celebrations also started at Sangwan's home. "Jab se khabar aayi hai, phone pe phone aa rahe hai (The phone has not stopped ringing ever since the news of Sumit's qualification broke)," Surender Sangwan, the proud father of Sumit said.

Shiva was a point down at the end of first round but read his opponent well and changed his strategy to turn the tables on his Japanese opponent. The boy from Assam won the second round 15-6 and from there it was Shiva all the way. He will now meet Asian Games bronze medallist Wessam Salamana of Syria for gold on Thursday.

Sumit was ahead on points from the start, leading 5-3 in the first round. The youngster from Karnal (Haryana) raised the level a notch in the second and raced ahead to 16-7 at the end of the high-scoring round. Despite the comfortable lead, the Indian did not allow his Jordanian opponent to settle down.

Sumit had told TOI on Monday that he would win his semifinal bout. That was not an empty boast. His confidence shone through on Wednesday as he took apart his opponent.

He added: "It was a tough bout as Ihab is an experienced boxer. The first round was very close. In the second round, my coach told me to attack from the left and it worked."

Sumit will be up against Kazakh opponent Dzhakon Qurbanov in the final. This was the last qualifying meet for the Indians. National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu expressed satisfaction with the boxers' performance in Astana: "I am very happy with our performance from this tournament, except Suronjoy's result. He got a tough opponent in the second round."

On Wednesday's matches, Sandhu said: "Shiva's opponent was tall and fought in an awkward style. However, Shiva used his head and a combination of right counters and left hook did the trick. As for Sumit, he boxed at long range. Ihab was a strong, well-built opponent. He was punching and moving to the sides but Sumit changed the game in the second round."

Shiva and Sumit's heart-warming performance came on a day three Indian boxers -- Vijender Singh (75kg), Manpreet Singh (91kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) -- bowed out of the tournament. Vijender, the Beijing Games medallist who clinched his London berth earlier in this tournament, lost 7-10 to Asian and Youth Olympics bronze medallist Nursaat Pazziyev of Turkmenistan.

Manpreet and Samota's London dreams are over. The former lost his semifinal bout to Iran's Ali Mazaheri 6-13 while Samota lost 12-23 to 2007 Asian Championship silver medallist Soumar Ghossoun of Syria. Both Manpreet and Paramjeet needed to go all the way in their respective weight categories in order to qualify. "We don't figure in top five teams in heavyweight categories. The competition was very tough as only one quota place was available," Sandhu said.